Page 58 of Finding a Melody

What the heck was going on?

“Face forward,” Seth said. “Before you get hurt.”

“Okay.” Just as I was about to settle in my seat, I froze as two motorcycles pulled out from behind the truck, surging forward. The style of the motorcycles and the familiar pattern of the leather jackets, it all clicked into place. “Shit.”

“What?” Seth tried to spot what had me scared. He finally saw what I saw in the other lane, making their way past the truck and up against ours.

“Seth, please drive faster,” I choked out.

“What the hell is going on?”

“Drive faster!” I snapped, my heart thundering hard against my chest as fear spiked my adrenaline.

He pressed on the gas, but there was no way we were going to outrun them. I bit my lip as they shot forward, one keeping speed next to us, while the other one cut in front of us, forcing Seth to slow down if he didn’t want to hit them.

“Why the fuck are we boxed in?” His grip on the steering wheel tightened as his focus darted between the two motorcycles and the truck behind us. “Are they fucking with us?”

It felt like two hot pokers were digging into my ribs as the fear gripped at me. “That’s the Ryder gang.”

“What?” Seth’s voice rose as his eyes bugged out. He paled.

“Ryder gang. They’re more present in Faydelle.”

“I know who they fucking are. I’m from Faydelle, remember? What the hell are they doing here?”

I couldn’t answer him as the panic rose inside me. All I could think about was how they found me. They somehow figured out I was the one to help Janice get away from their leader, and now they were going to punish me. Or torture me to find out what happened to her. That was the only answer I had.

I didn’t want to even think about what they’d do to a girl. I couldn’t let my mind go that way.

Seth sped up, mumbling something underneath his breath.

“You can’t run him off the road, you could kill him,” I said.

“And they won’t be able to do shit. What are they going to do? Go to the police?” Seth asked, eyes hard and focused as he pushed forward.

I gaped at him, wondering where that came from, but then I saw it. The way he shook. The sweat dotting his forehead. How he kept swallowing. Seth was terrified. And that only made me petrified.

There was a loud whirring sound as the truck behind us responded by speeding up. Then I was jerked forward, the seat belt biting into my chest.

“Fucking shit. The asshole rear-ended me.”

“Seth,” I nearly cried, tears blurring my sight. “What are we going to do?” Was this it? Were they going to kill us? I never thought my life would go like this. I never had to face danger like this, where someone unknown came at me with the intent to hurt me. I always knew where the danger was before, who to watch for. This was different though.

“Hold on,” Seth grunted out. “I’ll get us out of here.”

He swerved the truck, forcing the motorcycle next to us to back off.

“They don’t think I have the balls to fight back. They challenged the wrong fucking man.” His knuckles were white against the steering wheel, a dangerous dark look in his eyes, borderline madness. My worry for him increased, warring with the terror that gripped my chest.

I grabbed the door handle and held on tight, not wanting to be jerked around. Seth slammed on the gas and we surged forward, the truck almost whirring loud enough to drown out the motorcycles. The motorcycle in front of us tried to swerve in front of us, but lost the game of chicken when it realized Seth wasn’t planning on stopping.

We sped past the second motorcycle, but our freedom didn’t last long. The three vehicles came flying forward, determined to keep up. The truck pulled up alongside us, on my side, not caring that it was practically driving in the ditch.

“Seth,” I gasped.

His lips were moving, but he wasn’t making any sounds. Or maybe I was just that terrified, that the sound of my breathing and heartbeat and screaming thoughts muted him.

I stared at the dark windows of the truck, part of my reflection glaring back at me from my window. Then it slammed into us.